Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Bring on the Fluff

With four children in diapers and only one income, using cloth diapers is an obvious choice!  Jesse and I cloth diapered Jackson until he started daycare when he was 16 months old.  We had a variety of challenges with Jack, including a severe allergy to suede-cloth (no Bum Genius for that guy), psoriasis, and skin infections.  After swapping stashes with my sister, we now have quite the variety of diapers. 
 
We planned on cloth diapering the babies as newborns, but we were given thousands of newborn and size 1 diapers as gifts.  After two months, we've used most of the disposable diapers (with a hundred or so on reserves) and are finally ready to break out our expansive cloth diaper stash.  I'm thankful that we had enough disposables so I had a few months to master feedings and our schedule before adding the logistics of cloth diapers into the mix.  
 
We have a changing station upstairs in the nursery and downstairs in the living room.  Each changing station has a dry diaper pail and variety of cloth diapers.  Though we used cloth wipes with Jackson, we are choosing to use disposable wipes right now strictly for convenience.


My personal preference is to use fitteds with covers or one-size pockets.  We use Alva one-size pockets for Jackson and an assortment of fitteds with Thirsties covers for James, Amelia, and Madeline.   
 
We have enough cloth to do laundry twice a week, but that would be a whole lot of dirty diapers piled up!  Between the four kids, we use up to 30 diapers per day.  I'm currently doing laundry every other day.  We do the standard rinse cycle, wash cycle with safe detergent, and additional rinse cycle.  I prefer to line dry them when possible to reduce stains and smell.  

 
And now for a baby fashion show! 
 
Seriously, who can resist babies in fluff? 
 
Jackson's pretty cute himself.
 
For those that are wondering, I'm too lazy to potty train, though Jackson is beyond ready.  I really don't care so long as he's fully potty trained before his third birthday.  He does use the potty by himself a few times a day, but I'm not pushing anything until Christmas break when Jesse and I have two full weeks together to kick the diapers once and for all.

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